Friday, September 7, 2012

Comics, Sports and a City

Hi everyone. I was sorting through a pile of my comics the other day and found a small series that ran its course through a title called, "The Brave abd the Bold." This book was a tryout series along with "Showcase" and this particular series was called, "Strange Sports Stories."

In this series there were stories entitled, The Hot-Shot Hoopsters," "The Race Through Time," The Headless Baseball Team" and my favorite..."The Gorilla Wonders of the Diamond." Most of these tales were about the backdrop of sports being used to thwart alien invasions of our planet and the defeat of evil galactic races, bent on conquering our Earth. These were indeed...Strange Sports Stories.

But then as I read the paper today, I'm reminded of another strange sports story, one where Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly, Greg and Mike Pruitt as well as Kevin Mack and Ernest Byner run through an ongoing tale cover to cover. This story also has Frank Ryan, Bill Nelson, Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar passing through each of its pages, giving this area a rollercoaster ride of joy, emotion and even sometimes heartbreak. Those famous years and games we remember are as vivid as any comic book written and drawn. But these sports comics also have another hero and villain rolled into one. His name was Art Modell and he was one of the best things to happen to football in general and the Browns in particular, in a long time. But his fears for the financial well-being of his family drove him to leave town with the team and the memories that we so loved in this area. Hmmm, "Strange Sports Stories" indeed.

And as the new Browns season starts, Art is now re-united with his wife and maybe in the future there won't be any sports stories that are labelled "strange," only ones that are are filled with action, joy, happy endings...and forgiveness, just the way I like my comics.